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LifeloggingI am Apollo Lemmon and this is my lifestream. I invite you to join me in my exploration of an integral life. I am focused on discovering what it means to live a life rooted in integral consciousness and I explore spirituality, art, community, technology, fitness and other aspects of a fully engaged life. I am now living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
I can always be reached at apollo@apollolemmon.com
Love was here long before we were. It was here when this universe first exploded into existence. It was here when atoms first began to form molecules. It was here when those molecules first began to form cells. It's been here every step of the way—in fact, love is so fundamentally woven into the fabric of this universe that some even posit it as the fifth elementary force in the universe: the force of self-organization through self transcendence.
more »Ken: Well, you can have an integral diet with or without meat. There are numerous reasons to have a meatless diet and many of them are economic, because it takes an enormous amount of grain to feed a cow and to get it to the point to produce a pound of protein. It requires something like a hundred pounds of grain for one pound of protein. So in terms of hunger for the world it is a big waste. Meat is a big, big economic waste. It’s very expensive to produce meat for food. Then there is all the garbage that goes into meat, as well as a lot of medical reasons for avoiding it, for example the disposition of our intestines not being prepared to digest it. I’ve seen approaches to this that make sense to me and they are approaches that use your genetic or blood background to determine if you need a lot of meat, some meat or no meat at all. Islanders live on fruit, while Tibetans practically all eat meat. The Dalai Lama gets very ill if he stops eating meat. It just makes sense to me that we come from different lineages and therefore we have different needs.
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I’ve amassed a number of quotes I haven’t found a good outlet to share before now. Clogging up Twitter would be shameful, so a blog entry seems an ideal way to present them. There are bits of profundity, inspiration, compassion and geekiness in the words that follow.
My head has been filled with “Empty Spaces” this afternoon. Earlier this week DJ Rekluse (a.k.a. Cory W. deVos) released his “80-minute musical meditation on silence”. It’s a magnificent mix of brilliant sounds from folks such as Pink Floyd, Massive Attack, Esthero, DJ Krush, Saul Williams, TV on the Radio, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Portishead and wisdom from luminaries Sally Kempton, Alan Watts, Alex Grey, and Ken Wilber.
Well, my post-ISE high has spilled over into a bit of a creative obsession for the past week, the fruits of which i am so happy to share with you all!
Empty Spaces: an 80-minute musical meditation on silence, featuring Sally Kempton, Alan Watts, Alex Grey, and Ken Wilber.
This is what my Dark Night of the Soul sounds like. I hope you enjoy.
You can find more of Corey’s music and his insightful blog posts at CoreyWdeVos.com.
Podcasts can push us to our edges of wisdom, insight and growth. Spiritual practice and personal growth are essential for becoming the greatest humans we can be, and gaining the perspectives and insights of masters is invaluable. I am showcasing the four podcasts that I return to week after week to challenge me to grow.
Brian Johnson‘s Philosophers Notes challenges us to “get our wisdom on” and engage in building the best lives we can. Each episode is a very short overview of a key insight from one of the best books on spiritual and personal development. The Big Ideas he shares several times each week are immediately useful in our growth. Philosophers Notes also exists as a premium site delivering excellent summaries of “life-changing Big Ideas” from the best books in the self-development field.
Philsophers Notes brings insights from a staggering number of great minds, including Abraham Maslow, Krishnamurti, Shawn Phillips, Osho, Tony Robbins, Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, Stephen R. Covey, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, Eric Butterworth, Martin Seligman, James Allen, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Buddha, Any Rand, Seneca, David Deida, George Leonard, Marcus Aurelius, Joseph Campbell, Russell Simmons, Esther & Jerry Hicks, Robin Sharma, Gay & Katie Hendricks, Dan Milman, Nathaniel Branden, Dennis Genpo Merzel, Michael Beckwith and Lao Tzu.
Brian Johnson nets out the great lessons of humanity for you by synthesizing the latest books on human potential, philosophy and life-empowerment. Get key takeaways, 3 times a week, in synopsis form.
Join Brian as he goes straight to the “big ideas” from the world’s great personal development teachers including: Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Abraham-Hicks, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Dan Millman, Paulo Coelho, Nietzsche, Rumi, Ayn Rand, Joseph Campbell, Marcus Aurelius, Abraham Maslow and Napoleon Hill.
Get your wisdom on with PhilosophersNotes as you tap into inspiration on everything from discovering (and living!) your purpose, tapping into the laws of affluence and spiritual economics, mastering your time management skills, nurturing your relationships, optimizing your health and fitness and pushing through fears to live your greatest life.
“Brian Johnson is a national and international treasure, and his consciousness is a gift to us all. I’m delighted that his new service, PhilosophersNotes, is having such a large global impact. It’s rare to discover a service that springs directly from the creator’s genius, and rarer still to find something so useful that makes life richer and simpler. I encourage you to subscribe to PhilosophersNotes and tune to Brian’s frequency.” ~Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., Author of “Five Wishes”; Co-Author, with Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks, of “Conscious Loving”
Increasing competency in creation spurs humanity to become more loving, more encompassing, and more wise. Technology is thus inherently good; this novelty is an expression of divinity and essential for improving any aspect of our lives. Technology lifts life above limitations and brings freedom to fruition.
This is a rare view, but an essential one to move us forward. Thankfully, a leading edge of thinkers is offering this beacon of hope amid a seeming void of entropy. Ken Wilber and Kevin Kelly are two thinkers on this edge who are passionate about bringing technology and spirit to the fore of our discussions. In an exciting and compelling dialog, titled “Exploring the Technium: Technology, Evolution, and God“, the two have come together to unreservedly share their profound understanding of the importance of technology, the very structure of the Kosmos and what it means to be part of an evolution that involves technology implicitly.
Kevin Kelly has been producing, in his blog The Technium, a body of work that frames technology as the newest leap in a vast movement of extropy that works against the winding down of the universe. His eloquent entries flesh out a vision of inherently spiritual directionality at work through life and the technology that emerges through it. Optimism of this sort is exciting and certainly uncommon, but apparently more true and more practical than the pessimistic and reductionistic views of technology as merely neutral or evil that prevail in many minds. At the very least, Kelly’s vision is a compelling and satisfying presentation of our role in the universe, as is clear in entries such as “Cosmic Origins of Extropy“.
Technology is the latest chapter in a continuous story that builds up order, structure, freedom, possibilities and good against the inescapable black drain of entropy. While the universe cools and dies, the spreading differential of life (and technology) warms up a greater portion of cosmic coldness.
This rising flow, called extropy, enlivens our current technology on earth but was first birthed in the unlikely genesis of the universe 12 billion years ago. In that way all machines trace their origins to the big bang; Technology is a cosmic force.
As primeval matter swirled into galaxies, extropy rose as stuff gathered into life and finally unleashed its full power as self-consciousness mindfulness. Extropy is now unfolding the technium – the autonomous planetary technological system created by our minds. It is this awakening sphere of technology which is so altering our planet, shaping our history, and disturbing the universe.
Kevin Kelly, “Cosmic Origins of Extropy“
The discussion begins with talk of The Technium, but moves into a look at Ken Wilber’s AQAL theory as it applies to technology and spirituality. And from this spiritual stream the topic of Kelly’s spiritual experiences emerges. A mystic event of conversion to Christianity informs his work as a futurist and a technologist in a rich way. A merging of spiritual and scientific understanding enriches the work of both men and creates an abundance of enthusiasm and greatness.
Listen to Exploring the Technium: Technology, Evolution, and God for free from Integral Life.
Ken Wilber, the leading voice in the integral movement and founder of Integral Institute, was interviewed by Salon about his work and that interview, “You Are the River“, graces the site’s main page today. Ken has worked with tremendous insight and love to craft the finest maps of our experiences and his integral framework is a tremendous treasure. The interview has been linked to throughout the integral community today and is a nice introduction to Ken and and his integral philosophy.
In the interview Ken touches on the limitations of scientific materialism, the absurdities of the new age movement, the relationships the founders of quantum mechanics had with mysticism, human development, and facing death. Ken, as always, presents his work with a rare humility and eloquence.
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You’ve written that many of the great 20th century physicists — Einstein, Bohr, Planck, Heisenberg — were actually mystics, even though none of them thought science had any connection to religion.
I wouldn’t say it quite that strongly. What happened is they investigated the physical realm so intensely in looking for answers, and when they didn’t find these answers, they became metaphysical. I collected the writings of the 13 major founders of quantum mechanics. They were saying physics has been used since time immemorial to both prove and disprove God. Both views are fundamentally misguided. These physicists became deep mystics not because of physics, but because of the limitations of physics.
So understanding that physics can only go so far — that there are many things it can’t explain — is ultimately a mystical position?
That’s correct. These are brilliant writings. They’re really quite extraordinary. Not many people realize that Erwin Schrödinger, the founder of quantum mechanics, had a deep satori experience. He found that the position that most matched his own was Vedantic Hinduism — that pure awareness is aware of all objects but cannot itself become an object. It’s the way into the door of realizing ultimate reality. Werner Heisenberg had similar experiences. And Sir Arthur Eddington was probably the most eloquent of the lot. All of them basically said that science neither proves nor disproves emptiness.
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Does the prospect of dying frighten you?
Not really. What comes up is just thoughts of how much work in the world there is still to do. And with this recent experience — letting me know that Big Mind is what there is — that fundamental fear of dying has basically left. Still, when someone asks if I have a fear of dying, I find myself hesitating. What goes through my mind is positive stuff — friends that I would lose and work that needs to be done.
For more on Ken Wilber and the integral movement, take a look at “Your Four Quadrants“, “The Perspective-Taking You“, “Spiritual Agreement” and “The Integral Vision“.
In Ken Wilber‘s integral theory the concept of quadrants is central (the AQ stands for all quadrants). The quadrants represent 4 essential dimensions of every thing, including each of us. We each have an interior and an exterior (a subjective and an objective dimension) and exist both as a whole in ourselves and as a part of a greater whole (we are holons, or whole-parts). These two axes in concert give us the four quadrants, the “subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective.”.
These simple distinctions allow for a lot of clarity in understanding our world and the various ways of thinking about it. The four dimensions disclose four primary perspectives that are at play in every discipline from physics to sociology, meditation to systems theory. If we leave out any one quadrant we are thinking partially and neglecting an essential and irreducible facet of our lives.
To learn more about the four quadrants, read on at Holons‘ “What are the Four Quadrants?”
Joe Perez is a beacon in the integral movement. His writings on integral theory, Christianity, sexuality, spirituality, social issues, politics and other areas are rich offerings of an integral mind. His blog entries have been among the most exciting and sharp pieces I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter.
Last month I was finally able to sit down to read Soulfully Gay: How Harvard, Sex, Drugs, and Integral Philosophy Drove Me Crazy and Brought Me Back to God, a book that is his intimate account of his discovery of integral theory, struggles with mental illness, living with AIDS, mysticism and the intersection of Christianity and homosexuality. It’s a heart-wrenching, humourous, uplifting and intellectually deft memoir.
One of the most rewarding aspects of the book for me is Joe’s reaction to his first encounters with the integral theory of Ken Wilber. Like Joe, I experienced the heady excitement of finally having a map of reality that was less fragmented and partial. Coming upon integral at the right time brought a dizzying clarity, a worldview earthquake and a demand of every ounce of humility available for Joe, myself and many others. There’s no going back up that rabbit hole and, in Joe’s words, “the world sure looks different from Wonderland.” Sharing in Joe’s experiences was a much needed reminder of just how thrilling, scary and satisfying the first tastes of integral can be and were for me.
Joe is a broad thinker, writing one day about J.R.R. Tolkien’s importance in “reimagining and reinvigorating Roman Catholic mythology into new modes of expression that are compatible with the postmodern mind, responsive to the demands of religious pluralism, and bursting with ecological sensitivity”, writing during another about the value of masturbation as a sacred act and on others about politics, homophilia, mental illness, and mysticism. He offers up beautiful glimpses at his life through many essential facets and brings it all together with seams, cracks and tremendous honesty.
You can hear Joe Perez in dialog with Ken Wilber in “Soulfully Gay: Out of the Closet, Into an Integral Embrace” and read Ken’s full forward to Soulfully Gay. Joe blogs frequently at Until.
Joe Perez is the featured guest on Integral Naked this week. Joe is one of the bloggers I admire most —intellectual and soulful impact like his is seldom found—, and it was a great pleasure to walk through the dusk this evening while his dialog with Ken Wilber played. Joe’s story is a brilliant example of the value of an integral stance in living our lives, and it’s also deeply touching just as a human struggle.
Soulfully Gay is sitting at the top of my pile of books to read when academic demands allow, and I’m even more enthusiastic about sinking into it after hearing some more pieces of Joe’s story. There’s much to be inspired by and to learn from just on the surface of what will be within, and he has shown ample evidence of a great depth in the writings I have read. I highly recommend Joe’s blog at Until for a taste of his writings and contribution to integral understanding, especially as applied in integral Christianity.
The author of one of the most searing, courageous personal memoirs of our time shares how an Integral Approach helped him reconcile a life of fierce inner struggles with what it means to be a gay man in today’s culture, the difference between genuine spiritual experiences and psychotic episodes, and the thorny intersection of homosexuality and Christianity.
In the foreword to Soulfully Gay, Ken Wilber writes: “Joe Perez’s book is perhaps the most astonishing, brilliant, and courageous look at the interface between individual belief and cultural values that has been written in our time. By a homosexual, or a heterosexual, or any other sexual I am aware of.” Ken wrote this foreword without even having met Joe—probably one of the strongest complements one writer can give to another—and Soulfully Gay is the second offering from our Integral Books imprint at Shambhala Publications.
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As Ken so beautifully summarizes, “Joe’s life is being artfully lived in the very fact of its truthfulness, its deep embrace, shadows and warts and worms and all, woven unhesitatingly into the tapestry of a lustrous display, a deep peace, an abiding love… and therein, surely, a lesson for us all….”
You can find a free sample of Ken Wilber and Joe Perez in dialog at Soulfully Gay. Part 1. Out of the Closet, Into an Integral Embrace and sign up to hear the full transmission and many other brilliant conversations.